I don't even know why we have that tv test thread.... this should have been a thread about 3 months ago though, now that season 1 is over. Ended on a fantastic note... the whole thing is just untouchable.

10 episodes for season 2, *however* HBO are currently thinking about greenlighting both season 3 and season 4 before season 2 even airs.

They'd probably doing it early to counter production delays and get the show back into a January slot, with 2 seasons ordered at once to have enough episodes to cover the gigantic third book over the course of 2 seasons.

It'll be very good news if this happens, at least 3 more years of excellent TV to watch. I really hope that this show gets to see it's full 8 series and conclude by having the final series release alongside the final book.

I read the first book after watching season 1, and enjoyed both. I keep out of online discussions on this show due to the spoiler issues.

Finished the season, bloody fantastic. I've never read the books (although I kind of want to now) but the show did a great job with casting and getting you invested in the characters. Also the visuals in the show and portrayal of different areas is fantastic. The Wall is just stunning.

I had already heard before I started watching the show what happens to Ned Stark (though I wish I hadn't), but it didn't make it any more unbearable to witness. Lord Eddard Stark, you'll always be the true king in my eyes!

Eddard never wanted to be to the king. Arguably, this is a justifiable enough reason for why he should have been king because he was always fair, reasonable, and objective in his views. Unfortunately, as described in the series, he became a victim of his own desire to not be king, and unfortunately as described to him by Queen Cersei (wife of Robert Baratheon) the whole ordeal of the kingdoms is built upon a game of politics that he was unwilling to participate in. Arguably, I'd rather be dead than defy my principles and morals.

You're right though, it is a fantastic series, and I too would enjoy to one day read the book series.

So... why is a lot of people watching this? I'm currently in S01 E02 and its putting me to sleep.

Does this show get better? Or does the entire series follow the same pacing as eps 1 & 2?

A friend of mine wrote the show off as boring after watching the first 2 eps too.

It gets a *lot* better, the first 4 eps are effectively just setting the scene and filling in backstory, from the end of ep 4 onward is where things start to kick off.

Even then, the entire first season is basically just setting the stage for the (much more epic) stuff that comes later.

You can't reasonably expect a show based on a series of 1000-page fantasy novels to start in the middle of a giant random battle with dragons and wizards and no clue about who they are or why they're fighting. Characters need to be established, a few history lessons have to be snuck in and the general groundwork has to be laid down. It all starts from a neutral, peaceful situation at the start of the series, which makes watching the process of everything gradually going to hell much more interesting.

A lot of people do get bored to death if there isn't something shiny and fighty lazer battles of magic doom in the first 30 seconds, which is why the first LotR movie opens with a flashback battle scene instead of hobbiton.

I guess the show could have tacked on a 5-minute flashback to hundreds of years earlier with the targaryens burning cities to the ground with their dragons, but it would have looked horribly out of place. It'd also mis-represent the show, which is much more complex and smart than that (except for when the producers have to meet HBO's boob quota).

If you want a fantasy that is pure plotless "hero hacks apart thousands of enemies in fountains of gore, bangs a million chicks, then goes back to hacking apart thousands of enemies in more fountains of gore".. then Rome is the show you want.

The first scene in the whole series is dead bodies laid out in a menacing pattern, little dead zombie girl looking creepy, and some thing running through the woods until he chops off some unlucky bastard's head. The opening scene is you watching some guy get decapitated in the middle of the woods. Boring? Seriously?

When I got introduced to it with that opening scene, I didn't know what it was, and I thought my sister and friend were watching like the middle of the season of some new show or even possibly some cool as fuck movie.

I don't think the first 2 episodes are more or less boring than the rest of the episodes. The show is excellent in writing, casting, acting, costume, set, special effects (which are rarely used), etc. However, if you don't like a medieval setting with a dramatic plot and a tiny bit of fantasy thrown in for measure, then GoT is just not going to be a show for you. That's what I'd measure your opinion of the show on RS 2Thou... this is basically LotR in an R-rated setting as an action thriller.

Funny you should mention the budget, originally, the writers intended not to show the battle, because of budget restrictions. But they felt showing it from inside the Keep would be too ... boring. So instead they convinced HBO to grant a larger budget for this episode.

But to lower the cost of the budget, they did not have large battle scenes like Helm's Deep in LotR, but rather close up from soldiers.

Amusingly, the director originally assigned for the episode had to leave before the shooting due to personal issues, so the creators had to bring in a director who had never seen the show before. But I should say he did a rather well job with this episode.

There were definitely grand elements to this episode that easily put it away and above similar scenes in other media. The dragon's fire scene was particularly impressive.

I did notice that they deliberately showed various aspects of the battle in close ups of individuals. I understood that they wouldn't be able to show a battle as it was actually unfolding, and I was looking for it, so to a certain degree I couldn't suspend all of my disbeliefs for the episode. That said, even though I realized I wasn't watching an actual battle, I do congratulate the team for their effort because it was still rather impressive in many ways and kept me in the show despite knowing it was wrong.

Also, the whole time I was like, wow Stannis the most reckless, idiotic (lucky) king ever! "I know, I'll go first to get my crown and kills some people without wearing a helmet or anything!" I expected him to be more commanding over the battle and for his troops to have more order, but I also understand that Stannis was a foil to the leadership presented at King's Landing, and in a way that was successful in fulfilling what it set out to achieve.

Also, the whole time I was like, wow Stannis the most reckless, idiotic (lucky) king ever! "I know, I'll go first to get my crown and kills some people without wearing a helmet or anything!" I expected him to be more commanding over the battle and for his troops to have more order, but I also understand that Stannis was a foil to the leadership presented at King's Landing, and in a way that was successful in fulfilling what it set out to achieve.

I think the "first off the ship, first onto the beaches, first up the ladder" style of leadership was mainly down to it being necessary... half the army had just died screaming from a napalm nuke, with the prospect of a bloody siege ahead of them.. he had to be out front or his army would have gone "screw this" and turned on him, that's what the scene on Stannis' ship showed.

There is also plenty of historical precedent for utter badassery, Alexander the Great also led from the front, and managed to live through even crazier stuff for an entire decade.

It also made a great contrast to Joffrey crapping himself and running away to hide as soon as the troops landed, despite being safe behind the battlements.

@Svip - Totally agree, there's been too much leaping around and cutting between different locations every 5 minutes this season. Was so nice to realise about 10 minutes in that the entire ep was going to not going to leave King's Landing, and that the battle wouldn't be a cop-out like the one in season 1. Every other storyline is set up for some action,too, so we should get a fun finale right on top of this.

It's not a super problem for me that Stannis was out in front. There's a lot of things to be said about using that as a form of leadership. However, he was doing all of those things without wearing a helmet (and he has pretty light armor on) lolwtf? This is for people running Beach of Normandy style up to a castle where people are going to throw large rocks down at you (and they'd probably use burning hot oil too).

Also his army seemed largely unorganized, considering he was supposed to be a really good military strategist.

I actually didn't mind that they cut most of the battle out in season 1. If they can't do it justice, then it's fine by me as long as they make it seem like justice had been served. I got the impression that a big battle with a good twist in it occurred and was more than happy with that.

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